10 Innovative Network Security Startups
These startups promise to thwart today's cyberthreats with cutting-edge technologies.
Automate the Exceptions
Every time I have a network automation presentation (be it a 2-day workshop or a 45 minute keynote) I get the same question afterwards: “How do we deal with exceptions?”
The correct answer is obvious: “there should be no exceptions, because one-offs usually cost you more than you earn with them,” but as always the reality tends to intervene.
Read more ...Creating a Firepower Peer to Peer Dashboard
Peer to peer applications are a significant challenge for policy enforcement solutions. Any flows that slip through as an undetermined application type may allow the file sharing app to function. The first key to addressing this challenge is simple visibility into which hosts or users may be abusing the AUP with these types of applications. This article shows a quick and easy way to create Peer to Peer dashboard in the Firepower Management Console.
For those that have already attempted this, there are a number of challenges that may have surfaced. First there are no readily available widgets or criteria that will show the desired information. Experimenting with search constraints and the connection table quickly reveals that the desired information can be easily accessed by using the “peer to peer” Application Protocol Category search criteria. Unfortunately, the Connection Table is not readily available to the Dashboard Widgets. The Connection Summary table is available, but it does not have the Application Protocol Category (required for the search constraints).
My goal was to build a few dashboard widgets to give visibility into Peer to Peer activity. For this article I will demonstrate the steps required to build those widgets. The first widget will provide Continue reading
BRKEWN-2019 – 7 Ways to Fail as a Wireless Expert
Presenter: Steven Heinsius, Product Manager, Enterprise Networking Group
I’m hoping the title of this session could also be “7 Ways to not be a TOTAL Wireless Noob” since that’s more my level. 
The Basics
- WiFI has been a standard since 1997
Taking a 100 employee company….
- 1999: 1-2 clients on the network
- 2005: 5 or 10
- 2007: 25+ (802.11n came around)
- 2010: 150 (smartphones in the office; laptops becoming the norm in the office)
- 2013: > 200
- 2016: > 300 (3 devices per person)
In 2007-2009, networks were designed for coverage. Those networks are still around and are being asked to support (on average) 3 devices per person.
WiFi is
- Half duplex
- A shared medium (like a hub!)
- AP talks to one client at a time; airtime is time sliced amongst all clients
- AP asks a client to ack every packet (?) it sends to a client
- Acks are retransmitted if not answered which means all other clients have to remain silent (and lowers performance)
Distance vs modulation
- When a client is farther away from the AP, the modulation is stepped down to increase the likelihood that the signal will make it
- The trade off is that Continue reading
BRKNMS-2701 — How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Prime Infrastructure
Presenters:
- Lewis Hickman, Consulting Systems Engineer
- Jennifer Valentine, Systems Engineer
BRKARC-3300 — IOS-XE: Enabling the Digital Network Architecture
Presented by Muhammad A Imam, Sr Manager Technical Marketing Engineering
Ironically, Datadog Suffers a Security Breach
Just when it was bragging about its Azure integration.
BRKIOT-2109 – Connecting Oil and Gas Pipelines
Presenters:
- Rick Irons-Mclean, Oil & Gas and Energy Architecture Lead
- Jason Greengrass, IoT Solution Architect
Connected Pipelines Validated Design: coming this week! Cisco.com/go/cvd > Oil & Gas area
- This CVD was built with customer input (from around the globe) and Cisco account team input (including yours truly)
- Next iteration of the CVD will contain more security, including providing better visibility into traffic and events in the control center network
For those that aren’t familiar with the oil/gas business, there’s three areas:
- Upstream: discovery and extraction
- Midstream: storage and transport
- Downstream: refining (turning it into product) and marketing/selling
Cisco can work and play in all three areas. Eg:
- Connected Pipeline
- Connected Refinery
- Secure Ops (managed security services from Cisco)
- Connected Oilfield
ISA95/99 (aka Perdue Model) – describes an architecture for different security zones within the industrial environment.
- Bottom is Level 0 – where the process actually happens (valves, pumps, etc)
- Top is Level 5 – the business/enterprise network
Operational principles (compare this with a typical enterprise environment and principles):
- Continuous operation: 24×7, 365 days a year
- Continuous visibility and control: operators need constant communication to the pipeline
- Safety and compliance: pipeline integrity, safety, security and reliability
With respect to 24×7 Continue reading